Mirage
by James Ducat
James Ducat’s work has appeared in CutBank, Apogee, Spoon River Poetry Review, The Inflectionist Review, and others. He lives with his son and dog in a house painted pink.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Mirage”? I wrote “Mirage” to capture that moment when hope for more collides with the reality of repetition. I had a very specific moment in mind when I started, but I found I liked the poem better the more I stripped away identifying markers. I believe that poems work best when the reader can overlay their experience onto the situation.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
05/04 • Leath Tonino
05/11 • Chris Pellizzari
05/18 • Chris Clemens
05/25 • Clayton Eccard
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
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07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
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08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD